I work at a Trek store so this was pretty cool news today. I guess Trek is out to take over Danskin:
Trek Bicycle has signed on as title sponsor of a new women’s triathlon Series.
The Trek Women’s Triathlon Series is targeting 12 cities for 2009 with more than 25,000 entrants anticipated. The Series is aimed at breaking down barriers for women athletes by providing a fun, supportive and non-intimidating atmosphere for aspiring and experienced athletes alike.
The Series Director, Maggie Sullivan, was the Director of the Danskin Women’s Triathlon Series from 1992-2008. Sullivan has played an integral role in the building of events that have caused participation by women in the sport of triathlon to soar over the past 17 years. Together with a seasoned group of triathlon veterans, including Hall of Fame triathlete Sally Edwards, Sullivan will lead a team of talented event promotion specialists to bring life-changing experiences to women and girls across the USA. “I am very excited to launch this new Series. I am confident that we, in partnership with the team at Trek, will deliver the remarkable life changing experiences that have been experienced by so many women across the country who have participated in triathlon races,” said Sullivan.
"I’ve dedicated my life to encouraging women to become more physically active and to use triathlons as a means to achieve their life goals,” said Edwards, CEO of HeartZones USA and best-selling author of 22 books on triathlon and fitness training. “I am so proud to be joining this new Series, which will enable me to take these efforts to a whole new level.” Edwards will serve as the Spokeswoman for the Trek Women’s Triathlon Series. She was formerly the Spokeswoman for the Danskin Women’s Triathlon Series.
Built around the sprint distance race format (1/2-mile swim, 12-mile bike, and 3-mile run), Trek Women’s Triathlons are planned for a dozen markets across the country, with events slated for California, Colorado, Florida, Massachusetts, New York Metro, North Carolina, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin. Selected cities within the Series will also include “youth focused” triathlons. The first Trek Women’s Triathlon will debut in Florida in 2009.
A final 2009 schedule is expected to be announced by December 31, 2008.
For further information on the Trek Women’s Triathlon Series, and/or to be added to the '09 Series mailing list, go to www.trekwomenstriathlonseries.com or call 877-221-9665 (toll free). The Trek Women’s Triathlon Series is a property of The Xxtra Mile, LLC a New York-based company focused on promoting active lifestyles for women and girls.
Wow - They got Sally Edwards to come over. Interesting because she was a key person in the Danskin series. I wonder if Danskin is taking it in a different direction, one that Sally wasn’t interested in. Or, maybe Danskin is getting out of the business.
I’ll be interested to hear about some of the politics behind it.
I hope Danskin And Trek series’ prosper in 2009 and the future.
Here in Seattle we have had the largest of the Danskin stops for many years and it would be great to have another well done, feel good, womens sprint tri come to town, I just hope they are smart about the dates and locations so people will want to choose both rather that choose between.
I’ve been a swim Angel for the last 3 years here in Seattle for Danskin. I hope Trek comes in and offers a race that attracts more of the really great female athletes in the area. Danskin is huge and many of the talented women around here stay away because of that. I hope Trek offers an opportunity to showcase the great women in the area.
I went to an intro/training meeting/party tonight and got some of the scoop. Of course, they didn’t say why the race organizers parted ways with Danskin, except to suggest that there were different visions for the future, but it sounded like the “new” race (TREK) will really be the old race. It’s unclear who Danskin has brought on to carry their torch, or what their race will look like this year, but TREK will carry forth the encouraging, pro-women, Sally Edwards spirit. It seemed likely that TREK will be smaller because it’s new and a lot of ladies will gravitate to the Danskin name and website, but anyone who is looking for the same race they did last year is sure to find it with TREK.
OK, I don’t get it. Unlike virtually every other sport, isn’t the beauty of triathlon the fact that it’s an all inclusive sport and that we all race on the courses at the same time?
I know the ITU and Olympics keep them separate, they are the only high level exception that I can think of, but there’s really no need for that either – wouldn’t it be cool to have the men and women start at the same time and see what happens?
It is my understanding that the Danskin series is merging with a fairly new race series that started in Philadelphia called SheROX. SheROX was started as a women’s only race in the Philly area and has spread to include Miami, Arizona, the Carolinas and now will be picking up the Danskin race cities as well.
The SheROX group did a great job with the races and include free training plans as well as a mentoring option for new triathletes to hook up with a mentor in their local area. They also sponsored clinics and other free informational sessions for each of the tri’s locally. Good first race and a lot of fun!
I interviewed Sally Edwards and Maggie Sullivan yesterday in Austin. Basically, all the same people from Danksin are running this one. They didn’t have control over the the direction of Danskin so they set up this series so they could run it.